Bug Out! Part 8: RV Park Terror (13 page)

The barn was deserted. It was starting to get a little bit chilly out there. She sat at the work bench and logged onto the laptop, then started looking up each name, bringing up what information she could find, then saving the good links into a file. The early ones were like going back in time…there were pictures of the town, with investigation reports. She recognized a young Howard in a couple of the shots. All of the victims were young women, snatched from their cars. Whoa, most of the time they were waiting for a tow truck when they disappeared. They didn’t figure that out until the late 90s, when more people had cell phones. Several of the later victims called family members, saying they were waiting for a tow. The bodies weren’t found right away, but their cars were usually found the next morning, open, by the side of Nighthawk Road, just southeast of town. She turned, looked at the tow truck behind her, and shuddered. It was an early 2000s model.
The son.

Late that night, in Marina Del Rey, California, a black man sat in the dark, the glow of a computer screen lighting his face. His eyes got wider. He made some notes, and drilled deeper. Then he pulled out his cellphone and dialed.

“George.” he said.

“Malcom? Geez, don’t you know what time it is?”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I got an alarm.”

“Which?”

“Nighthawk Road Killer.”

“That’s not exactly recent, Malcom.”

“The search activity is coming from nearby the scene, George. I traced the IP address through the satellite provider. Brand new service, at an RV Park south of Sharon Springs.”

“They found something.”

“Think you can use your connections to get us across the border, George? With our rigs?”

“It’s still dangerous out there, Malcom. We’d have to go way north and then drop down into Kansas. Long trip.”

“I don’t care. A good long motorhome trip would do us good.”

“One or both of the rigs?”

“Depends. Think Heidi wants to come?”

“Maybe. I’ll talk to her in the morning.”

“Bye, George.”

“Later, Malcom.”

The sun was out.
It was a bright morning, and a ray of light came through the open skylight above the bed. Terry was warm under the covers, naked against Trish. He pulled back the covers and was about to step out when he felt how cold it was. He covered back up in a hurry and snuggled. Trish woke up, stretched, and looked at him.

“Happy?” she asked sleepily. She had a soft smile on her face.

Terry kissed her forehead. “Yes,” he said. The night had been bliss. Everything he hoped for and more. He stared deep into her eyes. “I want to spend the rest of my days with you.”

“You might get tired of me,” Trish said. “Boys usually do.”

“Why do you think that? Are you afraid you’ll get tired of me?”

“No,” she said, touching his face, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’ve never felt like this with anybody before.”

“Same here,” Terry said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever really been in love before. This is different.”

“I’m bossy,” she said. “Like my dad always says, I’m hell on wheels. You might get tired of that.”

“He told me that you’re a lot like your mom in that regard. He worshipped the ground she walked on. You know how lost he feels without her? I can see it in his eyes when he talks about her. I can take bossy. It doesn’t bother us as much as you think.”

“Well, let’s just see how this develops,” Trish said.

“No,” Terry said.

“No?”

“No,” Terry said firmly. “I can be bossy too. You’re my woman. We aren’t trying this out. We’re already in it. You know that.”

“That’s what I’m hoping for, but I’m nervous,” she whispered. His eyes softened, and he kissed her.

“The time for playing hard to get is over, sweetheart. I want us to get married. Soon. We can have your dad do it, or we can go to the courthouse in town, or we can have a big wedding out here. It’s up to you.”

Her eyes got wider, and she smiled. “Yes,” she said.

“You’ll marry me?”

“You just put me over the edge,” she said, caressing his cheek. “I need somebody that will put up with me, and have a firm hand too. I just saw what I needed to see.”

“How do you want to do it?”

“Can we have my dad do it now, and then have a big ceremony when things settle down?” she asked.

“Of course,” Terry said. “When?”

“Today,” she said.

Jane was still lying in bed, looking at the ceiling, her mind reeling over the discovery they’d made yesterday. Frank had already left the coach, and was back in the clubhouse, working on the PC. She looked out the window and saw Jasmine come out of her coach, bending over with her hands on her knees. She didn’t look good. Jerry walked down and touched her shoulder, and she motioned for him to get away.

“Maybe she needs a woman to talk to,” Jane said to herself. She got up, threw on some clothes, and went out into the salon. Lucy was already out…probably sitting in the clubhouse next to Frank. Mr. Wonderful walked up and bumped against her, but Jane saw the pet food dishes on the floor. “Sorry, Charlie, you’ve already been fed,” she said as she left the coach and walked over to Jasmine.

“You alright?” she asked.

“Morning sickness,” Jasmine said. “This is worse than I expected.”

“Oh, I should have guessed. It’s not fun, but it doesn’t last forever.”

“Thank God for that,” she said, spitting.

Jane laughed. “That was dainty,” she said.

Jasmine looked up at her and laughed too. “I have a feeling getting pregnant is more fun than being pregnant.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. You aren’t to the fun parts yet.”

“What went on in the lounge yesterday? My mom was upset. I talked to her for a moment before her and Jeb went in for the night, but she wouldn’t tell me anything.”

“We’ll have a meeting about it later, but I’ll clue you in. We found another trap door, under the rug in the lounge.”

“Really? What was in it?”

“A dungeon.”

“What?” Jasmine asked, straightening up. She spit one more time.

“A dungeon. The person who owned this park was a serial killer. He kept women captive down there, then killed them, and probably dismembered them.”

“No way,” Jasmine said. She started thinking it through. Jane could see it.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Jane said. “That’s why we’re having a meeting. We’re going to propose that we sit on this info at least until we get our chance at the enemy leadership. That’s only a couple of weeks.”

“We’ll have to leave here when we tell the authorities. They’ll put this on TV. The bad guys will figure out where we are.”

“I know, that’s what we’re worried about.”

“I’m going to smack Jerry. He had a chat with Jeb before he came in last night. I could tell something was bothering him, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was.”

“Ah, don’t be too hard on him,” Jane said. “He’s probably afraid to stress you out, with the baby and all.”

Jasmines look softened. “Okay, I guess you’re right. It still annoys me. I’m a true crime nut and he knows it. This is going to be interesting. How much have you found out?”

“I did searches on all of the victims,” she said. “This was a local
big deal
and even made the national news a few times, although the frequency in the last ten years or so was lower than what it was in the 60s and 70s.”

“Does the killer have a name?” Jasmine asked.

“Yeah, the Nighthawk Road Killer. You know that tow truck in the barn?”

“Yeah,” Jasmine said.

“I can almost guarantee you that it was used for at least the last couple of murders.”

“Wow. Anybody searched the cab yet?”

“Not that I know of,” Jane said. “Didn’t Jerry drive it, when they were jump starting the generators?”

“Yeah, but I doubt he looked around. He said the keys were in the ignition, so he didn’t have to look for them.”

“Interesting. Feel up to checking around it later?”

“Hell yes,” Jasmine said. Then she started to look a little green behind the gills. “Shoot, I’m going to barf again.” She covered her mouth and ran behind the coach.

Jane chuckled to herself, and then walked towards the clubhouse to see how Frank was doing. She smelled coffee as she came through the door, and the heater had been running. It was nice and cozy inside.

“Morning, honey,” she said, approaching Frank at the PC.

“Hi, sweetie,” Frank said. “There’s some coffee in the kitchen. Hilda found the big coffee pot and cleaned it out. She’s in the walk-in with Mary and Charlie, cleaning it out.”

“They’re still wanting to restore this place after what we found yesterday, huh? I’m a little surprised.”

“Well, me too, a little, but this
is
a good base for us. Charlie’s going to call a meeting in a couple of hours, although I think most of the group knows about it already.”

“Jasmine didn’t,” Jane said. “Jerry probably knows, but he didn’t tell her.”

“Why not?”

“The baby,” Jane said. “By the way, she had a pretty bad bout of morning sickness this morning.”

“So it begins,” Frank said, chuckling. “Still jealous?”

“Yeah,” Jane said. “I know, weird, isn’t it?”

“No, not really. What’re you going to do today?”

“Well, anything you need help with, that’s always the top priority. After that, I’m going to start digging into this serial killer thing. Doing the research last night really got my mind spinning. I love this stuff.”

“Yes, I remember,” Frank said, smiling at her. “Okay, fair enough. If you want access to the dungeon, you’ll have to convince the Sheriff. He padlocked it.”

“Okay,” she said. “I was going to take a look in the tow truck first.”

“You really think they used that for the last few murders?”

“I’m almost certain they did, based on the reports. There were cell phone calls for the last several victims about waiting for a tow.”

“Well, you might want to grab some of the rubber gloves I have in the coach before you start touching things. Some if it will end up being evidence. I’d take a lot of photos before you touch anything, too.”

“I know, already been planning on that. You want more coffee?”

“No thanks, honey,” Frank said. “I’m good.” He turned back to the PC screen as she walked to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, in Marina Del Rey, Malcolm was in his office, looking at a huge map of the United States, which took up almost the whole wall. It had pins stuck in it here and there, and red yarn going between some of the pins. He was focused on Kansas, up on his tiptoes, looking closely at cluster of pins stuck in the southwestern part of the state. Malcom was trim, about six feet tall, in his early 60s. He had an athletic look to him. His smile was warm, almost playful. He heard the front door of his office suite open.

“Malcolm?”

“George, I’m back here,” he said, turning towards the door. George appeared. He was in his early fifties, looking rather buff for his age, with hard chiseled features and a weathered face. He walked into the door, and a pretty blonde woman followed him in. She was in her mid to late thirties, but only just starting to lose the twenty-something blush. Her blonde hair was long and straight, hanging down to the middle of her back. She grinned at Malcolm.

“Heidi, how are you?” Malcolm asked.

“Oh, alright, I guess,” she said. “What kind of crazy escapade do you have planned for my Georgie this time?”

“Road trip to Kansas,” he said. “You know…
there’s no place like home
.”

George laughed. “Oh, please. You planning the route?”

“Yeah, but it’s gonna be tough. We can’t go through Utah or Colorado. Both of them have too much enemy action still going on.”

“I was afraid of that. It took some convincing to get us a pass to leave California. I had to call in some favors.”

“I figured,” Malcolm said. He turned and pointed to the map. “Okay, up into Nevada on I-80. We’ll have to cut up into Idaho on route 93 to avoid Utah, and then go through Wyoming and Nebraska. Then we take route 83 south into Kansas. It’s going to be a long ass drive, that’s for sure, man.”

“Why don’t you guys just wait until things settle down a little bit?” Heidi asked. “This war isn’t going to go on forever. I hear we’re starting to get the upper hand in Denver. They said that on the news this morning.”

“I’m going stir crazy,” Malcolm said. “That martial law crap really got me depressed. Now that we have a good reason to hit the road, I’m feeling much better. It’s time to move.”

“I know,” George said. “This is a gift.”

“Well, alright, but I’m coming along,” Heidi said.

“Why?” George asked. “I thought you hated our hunting trips.”

“Maybe I can help to lower the body count,” she said, smirking.

George and Malcolm looked at each other. They both had wicked grins on their faces. Heidi shook her head when she saw it.
Not this again.

“Let’s leave this afternoon,” Malcolm said. George nodded yes.

Back in Kansas, Charlie was getting ready to hold his meeting. He’d already spread the word around the Park, and people were filing into the clubhouse, getting coffee, chatting, and finding seats. Charlie and Hilda went up to the front of the room.

“Thanks for coming, everybody,” Hilda said. The crowd quieted down. Hilda looked over at Charlie.

“How many of you don’t know about the new trap door we found yesterday?”

Only Jake, Gabe, Dobie, Trish, and Terry raised their hands.

“Okay, I’ll fill you guys in,” Charlie said, “and then we can chat about what to do.”

“Uh oh,” Gabe said. “Sounds like we missed something big.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. He got a grim look on his face. “Here goes. Yesterday, the Sheriff found another trap door. It was under the rug in the lounge area.”

“Really?” Dobie asked.

“Yeah, really,” Charlie continued. “There was a dungeon down there, complete with two cells, and hand cuffs chained to the wall next to them.”

“Wow,” Gabe said, chuckling. “The former owner was into S&M, eh?”

“No, Gabe,” Charlie said. “There was also an embalmer’s table, a bunch of bone saws and other medical tools, a drawer full of teeth, and a drawer full of driver’s licenses. We had a serial killer working out of here.”